Why would I need a public insurance adjuster? – Nader Anthony Odeh

Let me give you an example of a differing opinion that ultimately made a huge difference in a recent claim I handled. I was hired to an estate in Boca Raton, Florida. The owner was having a new leak into his office, bathroom and hall. The property owner wasn’t sure what caused the leak and ignorantly trusted his insurer. The insurer hired one of their own engineers to work with their adjuster. This is always a bad sign that your claim is going to fail. The owner had “no weather coverage” on this policy. Meaning it had a weather exclusion. This roof was an expensive cement tile that was 19 years old and was installed on a newly constructed home.  After hurricane Irma the owner had several random roofers climb the roof to inspect for storm damage. There were no leaks at this point. One of the roofers claimed there were hundreds of storm damaged cement roof tiles. The owner wasn’t clear what caused the leaks. After the insurance company hired their engineer he claimed the roof was defectively installed, but he agreed the roof was not damaged by weather. Oddly the opinion of their engineer would allow the insurance company to get out of paying for the roof replacement. After my investigation I equally agreed that the roof had no weather damage, but I could not agree that after almost twenty years of service  that the roof would just all of a sudden become defective. After looking at the roof it became clear to me that the roof was neither storm damaged nor defectively installed, but instead I am convinced that an act of vandalism or malicious mischief took place when the unknown roofer claimed to have seen roof damage. It was only after this inspection that the roof started to leak. When looking at this roof you see where the roof tile had shifted. This would have happened by prying the roof tile or even walking on the roof surface with the intent to cause damage. After all if a roofing salesperson makes his or her money by selling roofs it wouldn’t take much to vandalize or to cause malicious mischief to the property to gain the roof job. 

In closing this example of a claim is settled by the owner having a person with a different opinion than that of the engineer and adjuster who would have not paid for the damages based on them claiming the roof was defective. In this case the claim value went from 58K to over 700K with the involvement of the owners own public insurance adjuster. You will always be better served when talking to claim professionals who work for you and not your insurance.